Left alone in her office, Morvana’s eyes sharpened as she stared at the spot where her supposed son-in-law had stood only moments ago.

What is he hiding?

She found herself trusting the boy again and again and yet the more she trusted him, the more suspicious she became of him at the same time. The contradiction unsettled her and she couldn’t understand why.

But ever since the incident at Ancian, she had understood one thing.

He knew far more than he let on.

He had previously told her that he only knew fragments, and yet he had known exactly where and when the treasury would descend.

But it wasn’t his knowledge that annoyed her. It was the fact that he kept it from her. And that, more than anything else, was what she couldn’t understand.

She should have felt angry. Instead, all she felt was annoyance... and disappointment that he didn’t trust her.

And if that wasn’t enough, he had brought a troublesome person back with him from the Demon King’s castle.

The Queen of Night — Lillith.

Morvana couldn’t understand why that annoying woman was here or why she was suddenly playing mother to her son-in-law.

Morvana took a deep breath.

I will think about it later.

With that thought, she pushed the irritating thoughts to the back of her mind and instead focused on the small letter resting before her. The sender was the Demon Council. It concerned the meeting of the Demon Generals that would soon be held.

But why does it have to happen during the exams?

She shook her head, already feeling a headache coming on as she tried to think of a suitable replacement to oversee the exams for the days she would be gone.

—

Meanwhile, back in his own dorm, Rael looked at the red-haired woman sprawled across the couch in his living room as though she owned the place.

He calmly walked toward her before kicking the couch once, hoping she would wake up, considering she was supposedly a martial artist with sharp senses.

But there was no response.

So he kicked it again.

Still no response.

"Haaah..."

A sigh escaped his lips as he grabbed the glass of water resting on the table beside the couch and poured it onto her face without hesitation, already annoyed by all the shit he had dealt with today.

The moment the cold droplets touched her face, Fiona jerked upright, her eyes flying open.

"Kyaaah!!"

"Tsunami!! Tsunami!!"

She started screaming.

"Ahem."

Rael cleared his throat, pulling her out of her panic as she finally looked at him and understood the situation.

"A thief?"

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"How dare a thief enter my house and pour cold water on me?"

As she spoke, she pulled her hands back as mana began surging through them, but before she could attack, Rael sighed once again.

"I am Rael, Ms. Fiona. And you are the one in my dorm."

He replied politely, knowing that no matter how much of a clumsy pushover this woman was, her strength was undeniable.

Fiona squinted at him.

"Ehhh?"

That was the only sound she made before her face flushed red with embarrassment.

"Ahh, I am sorry. I... I didn’t recognize you at first. Your flow feels different from before."

She bowed apologetically.

Rael shook his head, ignoring the embarrassed mumbling of this crazy woman. Instead, he narrowed his eyes.

"But why are you sleeping here, Ms. Fiona?"

"Uhh, that’s—"

Before she could reply, another voice interrupted.

"My liege, you are back."

It was Bearlo, dressed in black martial arts robes. But he wasn’t alone. Behind him stood another bear with beautiful white fur and soft blue eyes.

Rael’s lips twitched.

This bastard...

So this was the "training" this fucker had been busy with instead of coming to greet me.

He recognized the bear as the same one from the treasury.

"Mind explaining what’s happening here, Bearlo?"

He asked with a calm smile that definitely held no murderous intent whatsoever.

Bearlo’s body shuddered as he immediately pushed the suspiciously female-looking bear forward like a man introducing his girlfriend to his parents.

"This is Bearlina."

"And?" Rael pressed forward.

"He is an A.S.S member I rescued, my liege."

"He?!" A frown appeared on Rael’s face. For once, it was Rael’s turn to be surprised as Bearlo finally began his explanation.

***

After a few minutes of sitting on the couch and listening to everything that had happened to Bearlo, all Rael could do was let out a deep sigh while patting his poor assistant on the shoulder.

He didn’t even have words for him anymore.

Not only had his first love cheated on him with his best friend, but now his second crush had turned out to be a... trap. A female looking male bear.

By this point, Rael was certain. Although fate hated him personally, it loathed Bearlo’s mere existence even more.

Tsk, poor guy.

Still, the pity for Bearlo barely lasted for a few seconds before Rael opened his mouth to speak.

"So, after being teleported out along with your ’friend’ here, you brought them back by telling Principal Morvana they were my servants?"

"Yes."

Bearlo nodded.

"And they are A.S.S members?"

"Yes."

Bearlo nodded again.

"And because I wasn’t here and you didn’t know what to do, you even asked Ms. Fiona for help and told her about their origins?"

"Yes."

"Yes, my fucking ass, you bastard."

Rael finally snapped.

"Do you even understand how serious this is? Sheltering A.S.S members is already a massive crime. And you brought them to the center of the academy of all places? How do you even know whether they can be trusted?"

He turned toward Fiona next.

"And how could you help him with this, Ms. Fiona? Couldn’t you have informed the authorities instead?"

Fiona lowered her gaze as well.

Normally, Rael wasn’t the kind of person to care about small things like breaking laws or sheltering a few aliens for his own benefit.

But the situation was different now.

The same organization these aliens belonged to was going to attack the academy soon. And if it was discovered that, right before the attack, Rael Von Ashborn, a handsome, noble and dignified man, had secretly snuck the members of that very group into the academy right before the attack...

...then yeah, he would definitely end up branded as a traitor by all three races of this world, rendering all his future plans completely useless.

So, he turned toward Bearlo once again, ready to explain the disadvantages of the situation to him, but what greeted him... made him pause for a second.